We’ve already heard some new details about AMD’s Tonga GPU and now it emerges that the new graphics chip from AMD could force prices of existing Tahiti based graphics cards down. The R9 280X is AMD’s current $300 offering while the R9 280 is $250. With a round of price cuts after the arrival of the Tonga GPU we could expect to see the R9 280 drop to around $230 and the R9 280X to around $270. The Tonga based graphics card would then slot in above the R9 280X and fetch a $300-330 price tag, depending on its final performance. Such price drops would allow AMD’s R9 280 and R9 280X to better compete with Nvidia equivalents while the new Tonga graphics card should give AMD an edge over Nvidia’s GTX 770 and maybe even force Nvidia to fight back with some price cuts of their own.
For a quick recap Tonga should be based on the new GCN 2.0 design and based on the current 28nm processor. All the improvements of the current generation such as Mantle, TrueAudio and XDMA CrossFire support should be included. The card is yet to have its specifications disclosed but it should have more stream processors than the R9 280X but less than the R9 290, according to general rumours the expected availability is as early as next month.
Source: Sweclockers
Image courtesy of AMD
